All the Sunday school children looked eagerly at the bag Chris held in his hand. It was a clear plastic bag full of brightly colored gumballs.
“What would happen if I opened this bag and dumped it on the floor? What would come out of it?” Chris asked the children.
“Gumballs,” all the children answered quickly, hoping he really would dump them so they could each scoop some up.
But instead, Chris asked another question. “Who can say their memory verse?”
“That’s right,” said Chris. “When I was a little boy, that was one of the first verses I memorized. It didn’t mean much to me then, but as I grew up and experienced more and more of the love and goodness of God, I began to realize that everything in God’s heart is good. As His heart has been opened up to me, only good has come out of it. So now that verse has become much more precious to me, and I am thankful every day that the Son of God loves me and gave Himself for me.
“Now, I have another bag here. What’s in this bag?”
The children looked at the bag with disgusted looks on their faces. “Rocks and dirt,” they told him.
“Right. And what would come out of this bag if I dumped it on the floor?”
“Rocks and dirt,” they all answered.
“Do you think that if I cut a little corner off this bag and squeezed the bag of rocks and dirt really hard, I could get a gumball out of it?”
Most of the children shook their heads “no.” Some weren’t sure.
Then Chris asked if anyone remembered the previous week’s memory verse.
“That’s right,” said Chris. “That’s what our hearts are like. There’s not one good thing in them. Look at this bag again. Can you see any gumballs in it?”
The children examined the bag again. They could find no gumballs.
“How could I squeeze a gumball out of this bag if there are no gumballs in it?” Chris asked. “Yet there are lots of people in this world who have hearts like this bag of rocks and dirt. They are full of deceit and wickedness, and they keep thinking that they can squeeze something good out of those hearts that will please God. But that’s impossible. Unless we’ve been born again by the Spirit of God and have the Lord Jesus living in our hearts as our Saviour, we cannot please God.
“Now, let me ask you this question: How many good things did people do to the Lord Jesus at the cross?”
The children shook their heads sadly and answered, “None.”
“Our hearts are not any better,” said Chris. “But never forget that you can say, ‘ The Son of God . . . loved me, and gave Himself for me,’ even though you have a sinful heart. If you are truly sorry for your sins and believe God’s Word that ‘the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin’ (1 John 1:77But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7)), He will wash every sin away, and you will become a child of God with a clean heart that can please Him.”
As they chewed their gumballs, we hope that each child remembered the lesson those gumballs taught them.
ML-11/29/1998